Ch. 6

6-10 weeks: Parent’s communication evokes a broad grin called the social smile.

3-4 months: Infants begin to laugh at very active stimuli.  Infants perceive facial expressions as organized patterns and can match the emotion in voices and faces.

Expressions of basic emotions are well-developed. Fear, especially stranger anxiety, begins to rise.  Attachment to familiar caregivers is clearly evident, and separation anxiety appears.

The most frequent expression of fear is to unfamiliar adults, a response called stranger anxiety.  It tends to appear in the second half of the first year of life.

An infant’s distressed reaction to the departure of a caregiver.

Infant’s understanding of facial expressions improves.  Social referencing appears.

“Reading” emotional cues in others to help determine how to act in a particular situation.

Self-conscious emotions (shame, embarrassment, guilt, envy, pride) appear in the middle of the 2^nd year, as the sense of self emerges.

The strong, emotional tie that we have with special people in our lives that leads us to feel pleasure and joy when interacting with them and to be comforted by their nearness during times of stress.  By the 2^nd half of the 1^st year, infants have become attached to familiar people who have responded to their needs.

Contact comfort—body contact with a mother/surrogate mother—is more important in fostering attachment than is the provision of nourishment.

A theory formulated by John Bowlby that views the infant’s emotional tie to the caregiver as an evolved response that promotes survival.  Bowlby believed that the human infants, like the young of other animal species, is endowed with a set of built-in behaviors that help keep the parent nearby to protect the infant from danger and to provide support for exploring and mastering the environment.

John Bowlby.

1. (birth-6 weeks) Built-in-signals (smiling, crying, etc) help bring newborn babies into close contact with other humans, who comfort them.

1. (6 weeks to 6-8 months) Infants respond differently to a familiar caregiver than to a stranger.

1. (6-8 months to 18 months-2 years) Babies display separation anxiety, becoming upset when the adult whom they have come to rely on leaves.

secure base (infant’s use of the familiar caregiver as a point from which to explore the environment and return for emotional support.)

1. (18 months-2 years and on) Separation protest declines because children now can understand factors that influence the parent’s coming and going.

1. Exhibit distress when separated.
2. Show pleasure when reunited.
3. Exhibit distress when stranger approaches, especially if mother is not present.
4. More likely to explore a new environment, if mother or caregiver is present.

(Mary Ainsworth): A procedure involving short separations from and reunions with the parent that assesses the quality of the attachment bond.

Infants use parent as a secure base.  When separated, they may or may not cry, but if they do, it is because the parent is absent and they prefer her to the stranger.  When the parent returns, they actively seek contact and their crying is reduced immediately.